Public servants bracing for budget cuts

Commonwealth public servants are bracing for more job cuts in the federal budget.

With Prime Minister Julia Gillard warning of a tough budget following a $17 billion collapse in revenue projections, the Community and Public Sector Union fears the government will announce fresh cuts on May 14.

CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood says Labor should be looking for ways to raise more revenue instead of hacking into essential services.

"Everyone expects this to be a tough budget but the public sector has already borne its fair share of the pain. If further cuts are made then there's no doubt that it will hit services and hit them hard," Ms Flood says.

The CPSU's budget submission calls on the government not to make any more job cuts in the short-term and to commit to long-term growth.

It calls for a "collaborative" approach to savings which would see the abolition of the so-called efficiency dividend.

Labor announced a one-off increase in the efficiency dividend - from 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent - for 2012/13 as part of its push to get the budget back into surplus.

The government announced it would axe 4200 public service jobs in last year's budget as part of the dividend increase.

It's believed the majority of those cuts were achieved through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies, rather than sackings.

But the CPSU says workloads and waiting times have blown out as a result of cuts in recent years, with the Department of Human Services, the Australian Tax Office and Customs among the hardest hit agencies.

There have also been dramatic cutbacks in departmental travel and training programs, the union says.

Ms Flood warns deeper cuts would hit all Australians.

"In the end the losers will be the public who rely on these services every day."

The coalition has flagged deep cuts to the public service if it wins the September 14 election.